Hubble Telescope, Disoriented, Takes a Nap to Reboot

The Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s jewel of the skies, is briefly out of service. On Friday the telescope stood down from observing and put itself into “secure mode” after one in all its gyroscopes, which preserve it aimed toward objects of scientific curiosity, died.

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April 23, 2015

NASA has appointed a overview board to research the gyroscope drawback. The telescope carries a complete of six gyroscopes, however solely three are wanted to run the telescope. The others function backups.

During Hubble’s early years the gyroscopes died usually, and changing them was one of many primary duties of servicing missions. During the final and last servicing mission, in May, 2009, astronauts put in six new gyroscopes. Two have since died, leaving a backup and three working gyroscopes, one in all which expired on Friday.

But when floor controllers tried to convey the backup gyroscope on-line, it behaved erratically, sending garbled messages again to the bottom, stated Ken Sembach, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which operates the telescope.

Hubble in 2009, throughout a mission to improve and restore it. Despite the newest gyroscope failure, the telescope nonetheless has years of celestial remark forward of it.CreditNASA Goddard

The instrument could merely must be rebooted, Dr. Sembach stated in a quick phone interview on Monday. But, he added, “We don’t need to begin flipping switches till we perceive what’s taking place.”

Dr. Sembach stated that the overview board would want a minimum of a number of days to achieve any conclusion. Hubble can function with simply two gyroscopes if obligatory, because it did from 2005 to 2009 whereas ready for astronauts to return repair it. Even one gyroscope will do in a pinch.

The move of heavenly cosmic postcards has stopped for now, however Dr. Sembach stated that Hubble nonetheless has years of excellent science forward of it.